Baptism of fire

After a week of damaging revelations, Sir Ian Blair, head of the Met police, is under pressure to resign. Could the death of Jean Charles de Menezes seal the fate of the UK's most senior police officer? Tony Thompson reports

The week had started well. Last Monday morning, Sir Ian Blair, Britain's most senior police officer, stood shoulder to shoulder with Home Secretary Charles Clarke and warned Londoners that it was impossible to rule out a third terrorist attack.

The tragic shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes was far from forgotten, but Blair was keen to switch the focus of press and public attention back to the hunt for those intent on causing murder and mayhem in the capital.

But his efforts and 'recalibrating' the debate were doomed. Less than 24 hours later, a package of statements, reports and documents arrived at the central London office of ITN, and the blunders that led to the horrific shooting of an innocent man came back to haunt Blair.

Many of the key questions surrounding the death of de Menezes had already been highlighted in The Observer the previous Sunday and the revelations had prompted lawyers acting for the de Menezes family to call the Independent Police Complaints Commission on Monday to demand a meeting. But it was the leaking of official documents related to the inquiry the following afternoon that set the story ablaze and led to calls for the the Commissioner to stand down.

Not only did the documents contradict early accounts, some by Blair himself, of what happened during the shooting, but they also appeared to indicate that the police continued to put out misleading information when they would, or should, have known the truth.

Initial reports suggest that de Menezes, who had been followed by a police surveillance team after emerging from a flat linked to one of the alleged suicide bombers, had been challenged by police and had responded by running. He had, said witnesses, vaulted the barrier at Stockwell tube station and run towards a train before being overpowered in the carriage and shot dead. The overriding impression was that de Menezes had behaved exactly like a potential suicide bomber, and his attempt to run from the authorities had contributed to his death.

Five days after the shooting, accounts of de Menezes fleeing the police made their way into the post mortem report. Lawyers for the family claim that information could only have come from the police and that the post mortem report shows that the Met continued to mislead the public and the investigating authorities even when the truth should have been known. In response, the Met says that these details were all provided by members of the public and were never confirmed by police. Several witnesses have since admitted that they were mistaken in what they believed they had seen.

The truth as it emerged last week is far more disturbing. De Menezes was not properly identified as he left the flat because the officer monitoring the entrance was 'relieving himself', according to one of the revealed documents. Surveillance officers followed him for nearly half an hour, travelling with him as he boarded a bus and made his way towards the tube station. Despite police being told at a briefing earlier in the day that attempts should be made to 'control' any suspect emerging from the property as soon as they had reached a safe distance, no attempt was made to stop de Menezes until after he had entered the tube station.

Far from vaulting the barrier, he picked up a free newspaper and used his Oyster card to enter the station. He ran only briefly, when he spotted a train with its doors open at the platform. Three surveillance officers followed him into the carriage, waiting for armed officers - part of a separate unit - to arrive and make the arrest.

By the time the armed unit arrived, confusion about the threat posed by de Menezes sealed his fate. The armed team entered the carriage and, believing they were confronting a suicide bomber, shot him dead instantly.

Last week the cousin of de Menezes accused Blair of telling 'lies' and demanded that he resign for allowing his family to 'suffer' since his death. Alessandro Pereira claimed de Menezes had been 'murdered' by the police and said those responsible must face prosecution: 'For the sake of my family, for the sake of the people of London, in Jean's name, I say that those responsible should resign. Ian Blair should resign.'

It was also revealed that Blair had asked for an inquiry into de Menezes's death to be delayed because the Met had to concentrate on the threat of further bombings. The request was denied, but when it was revealed in part of the leaked documents the Commissioner faced further allegations that the demand for a delay constituted an attempt at a cover-up. Blair has defended himself, saying that he was acting in the best interests of the security of London and 'fundamentally' rejected the idea that he should resign. It has been a tough week.

Ian Warwick Blair was born in Chester on 19 March 1953, the son of a transport manager and a doctor. He arrived at Christ Church, Oxford, to read English in 1971, determined to become an actor, but realised he lacked the talent to turn professional. He opted to join the police as soon as he graduated.

He rose rapidly through the ranks and by 1985 was a detective inspector. In 1993, weeks after taking over the complaints investigation branch, Blair found himself heading Operation Gallery, the biggest anti-corruption inquiry for more than a decade.

The following year, as Thames Valley's Assistant Chief Constable, he directed the operation at the Newbury bypass construction site, helping to ensure the road was built without injury or loss of life and with minimal arrests.

In 1998 he was appointed Chief Constable of Surrey, holding the post for two years before returning to the Met as Deputy Commissioner to Sir John Stevens after being unsuccessful in his application for the £225,000-a-year top job.

When the married father of two signed his five-year contract and took over as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police on 1 February, his first act was to spend tens of thousands making a one-word adjustment to the Met's corporate logo. 'Working for a safer London' became 'Working together for a safer London'.

Over six months, that slightly shaky start was slowly replaced by an increasing level of confidence as Blair settled into his new role. At 7.20am on 7 July, he appeared on Today and said that the force was 'the envy of the policing world in relation to counter-terrorism'. The capital could feel safe during the 2012 Olympics, he said. Less than two hours later the first bombs went off and by the end of the morning 57 people were dead.

The biggest criminal inquiry since the Second World War would be enough of a challenge, but in many ways the hunt for the terrorists has been overshadowed by the death of de Menezes.

Many of his predecessors have come unstuck for far less dramatic reasons. Sir David McNee left office humiliated by the Queen's discovery of an intruder in her bedroom; Sir Kenneth Newman, supposedly an expert on inner cities, had the misfortune to be in office as riots broke out in Brixton and Tottenham. Sir Paul Condon pledged to eradicate police racism only to find himself haunted by the botched investigation into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence.

Blair has rejected the resignation calls and placed the shooting in the context of the 7 and 21 July attacks. On Friday, he told the London Evening Standard: 'Mr de Menezes' death, although the Metropolitan Police Service takes responsibility for it, is intricately linked to the circumstances in which London found itself and those who were prepared to use suicide as a weapon on the tube. And on that morning I and everybody who advised me believed that the man we had shot was a suicide bomber.'

However, it is the statements he made in the aftermath of the shooting that are now haunting the Commissioner. Only hours later, on 22 July, he told a press conference: 'As I understand it, the man was challenged and refused to obey police instructions.' Later that day a statement issued by Scotland Yard further added that the shooting had taken place because the man's 'clothing and behaviour at the station' had added to suspicions.

At a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority on 28 July, Blair said: 'Whatever else they were doing, they [the officers] clearly thought they were faced with a suicide bomber and were running towards him. They were running towards what might have been certain death.

'Had that person been a suicide bomber and had the officers not fired and the tube doors had closed and 25 yards up the track the bomb had exploded with terrible loss of life, the officers would be in a worse situation than they are now.'

He also expressed alarm at the actions of officers from the West Midlands Police who had arrested a suicide bombing suspect using a Taser, reaffirming the notion that shooting potential suicide bombers in the head was the only safe way to deal with them.

Blair's future is now in the hands of an organisation whose chair is the former head of the Refugee Council, and whose deputy is the former director of Liberty. Created in January 2002, the IPCC was launched in April 2004 and will undertake the inquiry into the shooting.

Pressure groups had long complained that under the former system - the Police Complaints Authority - allegations against officers were investigated by other police forces. Both Scarman's inquiry into the Brixton riots of the early 1980s, and the 1993 Macpherson inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence, called for an independent body.

Last week the IPCC deputy chair, John Wadham, said the IPCC had overcome initial resistance by Scotland Yard as the body to take on the investigation into the shooting of de Menezes. Blair responded that he only initially questioned the IPCC's role because it would have to disclose information to the families of those affected, and he questioned how this would work during a counter-terrorism operation. Once it was established that de Menezes was not a member of the terrorist team, it was no longer an issue.

Last week Blair denied he had misled anyone. Instead he is keen to stress he worked with the best information available at the time. 'Yes, I did say there were direct links to the investigation, and that is because he came out of the house that we had under surveillance. I'm not defending myself against making a mistake or being wrong, but I am defending myself against an allegation that I did not act in good faith, and I reject utterly the concept of a cover-up. But those allegations, I have to say, do strike at the integrity of this office and the integrity of the Metropolitan Police and I fundamentally reject them.'

The toughest test of Blair's career is far from over. Tomorrow two Brazilian officials will arrive in London to meet representatives from the IPCC. They will also meet Scotland Yard's Deputy Assistant Commissioner, John Yates, and other British officials.

On the same day there will also be a vigil for de Menezes outside Downing Street. His supporters will present a letter to Tony Blair demanding that the police be held to account for his death.

Cousins of de Menezes are expected to arrive in London from Brazil later in the week, with his parents - Maria and Matozinho - expected soon after. They hope to meet police and the IPCC and visit the scene of the shooting.

The chorus of voices calling for Blair to step down looks set to grow even louder. He will hope that the IPCC investigation will show that he made the right decisions, even under the heat of the biggest terrorist atrocity to strike the capital. It happened, as he knows only too well, on his watch.

Seven days of accusations

Sunday 14 AugustThe Observer reveals new questions about how the investigation into the shooting is being conducted. There are fresh concerns about the absence of vital CCTV footage, which is missing, say the police, because most of the cameras were not working.

Tuesday 16 AugustDocuments leaked to ITV News from inside the Independent Police Complaints Commission reveal that the version of events offered by Sir Ian Blair and the Metropolitan Police shortly after the shooting was inaccurate. The documents show that de Menezes was not wearing a heavy jacket as claimed, did not run away from police, did not know that he was being followed, did not jump the ticket barriers, was never properly identified and was shot despite having already been restrained by another officer. A photograph of the Brazilian lying slumped on the floor of the tube train shortly after being shot is also leaked.

Wednesday 17 August The Brazilian's family call for Blair to resign, claiming he is 'ultimately responsible for Jean Charles's death'. Reports that Commander Cressida Dick, the senior officer in charge of the operation to stop de Menezes, ordered colleagues to 'detain' him shortly before he was shot, cast new doubt over the way the incident was handled. Lawyers for de Menezes's relatives say that they no longer have faith in the IPCC's investigation.

Thursday 18 AugustRevelations emerge that shortly after the shooting, Blair wrote to the Home Office to try to delay an investigation by the IPCC, claiming that he was concerned that information on terrorist operations would be passed to the victim's family.

The Home Office rejected his plea, saying it would be illegal and would wreck the reputation of the IPCC. But the start of the investigation was delayed by several days as a result. At the IPPC, a clerk is suspended for allegedly leaking the documents.

Friday 19 AugustSir Bill Morris, the former union leader who headed an inquiry into professional standards in the Metropolitan Police, warns that the row could harm the fight against terrorism.

Saturday 20 AugustReports suggest the police are reviewing their shoot-to-kill policy. Further leaks suggest that a police report submitted to a pathologist about the shooting of de Menezes contained erroneous claims about his actions before the incident. The police deny that they have offered the de Menezes' family £550,000 in compensation for his death.